Odds Of A Shameless BioShock Or GTA MMO Appear To Be Low

The chairman of the company that puts out everything from Civilization to BioShock to Grand Theft Auto explains why he's never rushed to try to turn his top series into the next World of Warcraft. And for that, we are thankful.

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Blake Guest

Nov 12, 2010, 12:28pm

Does Everquest II count as a third? Given that both are still running in parallel?

How about Ultima Online, the game that created the whole genre? Or Asheron's Call, or Dark Age of Camelot, or City of Heroes? All well received, with a loyal following, still running and bringing in subscriptions after many years. A game doesn't need 12 million subscribers to "work".

Exactly, do you think any others, like LotRO or even WAR, Conan or Aion would still be up and running and having expansions released itf they weren't profitable? You dont need to be raking in the sums of money Blizzard are in order to be succesful.

That said, Take-Two Interactive are a large company and large companies like consistent returns. Niche market MMO's are a risky venture for them. Additionally, Zelnick's definition of "success" probably IS "topple Blizzard."

I think Zelnick's "question" should've been "how many MMO's have ever grown very large and made sustainable and significant returns over a long time in the US market." If that were the question, he'd probably be correct about EQ and WoW.

That said, I am glad we won't be having Bioshock MMO's. Seeing Bioshock get whored out would be soul-destroying.

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